Surgery due to expand to help meet local need

An already growing GP practice is due to expand further in a bid to cope with a lack of local access to doctors.

The Loughton Surgery in Essex, has been granted planning permission for eight new consulting rooms, a waiting area and toilets.

Howard Kauffman, from Epping Forest District Council's Loughton Residents' Association group, said: "Clearly we have an emergency in the medical profession locally."

The NHS surgery said it would allow some procedures to be done in Loughton instead of patients having to travel further afield.

The application was brought to the council's Area Planning Sub-Committee South due to an objection from the surgery's neighbour, who had said the building had "already been extended several times" and could be "very overbearing and cause a sense of enclosure", the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

Dr Lakhvinder Larh, a partner at the surgery, told the committee that it currently had a list of about 13,000 patients and was "the fastest-growing practice in Epping [district] and the second-fastest in all of west Essex".

He said the extension would allow some specialist treatment and minor surgeries to be done locally, without patients having to travel Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow.

Mr Kauffman, who represents Loughton St Mary's ward, said: "It's very difficult to get access to doctors, so an increased medical provision for everyone is obviously very beneficial and it would outweigh most of my concerns."

Smruti Patel, from the council's ruling Conservative group, praised the plans for their potential to allow minor surgery to be done locally and called it "common sense thinking".

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